Russian suspects say they were in UK as tourists

Category : UK NewsUpdated On : September 14, 2018 04:47 AM

By Indian Times Daily

Two men named as suspects in the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy in the UK have said they were merely tourists. The men, named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, told the RT channel they travelled to Salisbury on two consecutive days because bad weather cut short their visit on the first day.

They are accused by the UK of trying to kill Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March. The UK says they are agents of Russia's military intelligence service, the GRU.

"The town was covered by this slush. We got wet, took the nearest train and came back" to London, they told RT, Russia's state-run international broadcaster.

The UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has said there is enough evidence to charge the men, who are understood to have travelled to London from Moscow on 2 March on Russian passports.

Two days later, police say, they applied the military-grade Russian nerve agent Novichok to the front door of Mr Skripal's home in the Wiltshire city of Salisbury. They returned to Russia later that day. Mr Skripal and his daughter fell critically ill but recovered after weeks of intensive care in hospital. Their current whereabouts are being kept secret.